Using Mobile Phone to surf the net?

Fergal20

Hi there, I have tried doing a search on this but didn't find what I am looking for.

Basically, I'm buying a laptop and I want to be able to use it to surf the net. The problem is that I dont have any internet connections, ie, land line, broadband etc. What I want to know is can I buy a mobile phone that will let me connect my laptop to the internet?

I'm guessing that I will need a bluetooth chip in each device but thats all I know. Could somebody please give me some advice as to what I need and how it works? Also, what kind of connection speeds can I get?

Thanks in advance

aphex™

If you want to connect to the internet from over the GSM network (vodafone, o2 etc) it you could easily run up a bill of hundreds of €€ in a few hours.

Yes, they advertise on tv that you can use it to download emails etc but its aimed at office dorks who like spending €50 to get that email for the boss that they left in the office.

If you're in Dublin and u dont want a landline then irish broadband is your best bet.

Fergal20

Thanks for reply but I dont live in Dublin.

aphex™

Theres a few other wireless internet providers operating in and around the country. If you let us know what region you're in i'm sure we could point you in the right direction.

Unfortunately surfing the internet over gsm isn't feasible. This webpage would cost you 25c or more to download, for example!

However, if you only wanted to use it anway you'd need a gsm data card. Could cost around €100 - €150. I think that'd be the best option. It slots right into your laptop. A friend of mine has one of those, but he nearly died when he got his first bill.

Im not sure what phones are suitable for connecting to latops, though, sorry. Anyone know??

tomk

For what it's worth, I connect my laptop, which has a 3Com Bluetooth card in it, to a Siemens S55, which has built-in Bluetooth. I use O2 GPRS rather than GSM for the data connection.

It works perfectly, although I don't use it much. It all runs under Linux, and I really just wanted to see if I could get it set up.

Fergal20

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm still a little confused, whats the difference between GPRS and GSM?

I'm from Co.Carlow but I'm going to Bournemouth, England for 6 months and would like to have internet access on my laptop.

Scruff

A GSM (2G) network has got a max dataspeed speed of 9.6Kbps and is used to send sms and view wap pages.
GPRS (2.5G) is a addon to a GSM network that gives it a faster data transfer rate, up to 171.2Kbps but typically 40-50kbps its used for MMS and WAP and internet.


UMTS (3G) is faster again

see here for more info: http://www.gsmworld.com/technology/gprs/class.shtml
and here for a comparison with all mobile phone data technologies:
http://www.cellular-news.com/3G/expected_speeds.shtml

but due to cost you really, REALLY dont want to use those to browse the internet on your laptop. cost is horrendeous.

tomk

General Intro to GPRS

Very roughly, GPRS is a data-only service that runs on a GSM network. Optimally, it will give you speeds comparable to analogue land-line connections i.e. 30-50kbps. You can also use standard GSM connections for data, but they will be slower. I'm not sure exactly what speed you would get, as I've never used them.

Fergal20

Thanks very all the info. However I think I may forget about it due to costs.

Is there any other way that I could get connected? The accommodation that I shall be staying in doesn't have any method of physically getting connected.

Tnks

Scruff

well unless there is wireless like www.Irishbroadband.ie ripwave avaliabe in the area i'd say the only other option is to find yerself an internet cafe.....

tomk

Fergal20 wrote:

The accommodation that I shall be staying in doesn't have any method of physically getting connected.

So we're talking about (student?) accommodation with no landlines, and no possibility of ordering a landline? Hmmmm.....

The only thing that springs to mind is a community wireless network, along the lines of IrishWAN/DublinWAN/etc. This would be a good place to start, I guess.